Description

Car Home Ultra is a car dock app that makes it easy to manage your phone while in the car.

It can startup automatically when your car’s BT is detected, and you can always easily get back to CHU by pressing the home button (see settings->startup options).

• Customize an unlimited number of shortcuts to launch apps, direct dial numbers, or even navigate to a specific location. • Use the media controller to manage any music or podcast app on your phone with big easy to see buttons.• Keep aware of your speed, location, weather, altitude, and more with the built in data widgets.• Multiple skins and color schemes for 100s of different looks.• Automatic Day and Night color schemes to preserve your night vision.• Automatic Response for SMS messages let’s you focus on the road.• Speed Alarm to help you avoid tickets• Full Feature List Below

HAVE A PROBLEM? Please send me an email: contactus@thespinninghead.com

App Permission Descriptions:Device & App History – Required for the new Media Controller feature to detect if a media player is able to accept media requests.

Contacts/Calendar – This is required to setup a direct dial shortcut. Calendar is bundled with the contact permission.

Location – This is required to access the GPS for the speedometer, compass, altimeter, weather, etc…

SMS – This is required for the new SMS Auto-responder feature. If the feature is not enabled, the app does not interact with SMS.

Phone – This is required for the Direct Dial shortcut.

Photos/Media/Files – This is required for the Debug Log feature. Photos & Media are bundled with the permission, the app doesn’t need those.

Camera/Microphone – The app will need the microphone permission for any voice activated features in the future. It is required right now for the media player visualization feature. Attaching to the audio stream requires the mic permission. Camera is bundled with the mic permission, the app doesn’t use the camera.

Reviews

Nice size buttons Does everything I want and makes the buttons a usable size for my eyesight when set up as sat/nav, music & radio player and phone through the aux in my van.

Mike Morley

Brilliant good for making phone act as though in car dock

Ron Castelino

Best Application Must update with speed cameras location to avoid ticket as well .. priority for speed cameras

Francis Yeboah

Awesome navigator The best of the best and excellent navigator.

Tim Mcphatter

Love it

Andrew Weiner

This is by far the very best app of its kind that I have found and used. I had been through at least a half dozen other ones that were not acceptable. MY ONLY COMPLAINT IS THIS: when the app is on, there should be a setting that allows for the app to override the screen lock pattern that I have on the phone. What I mean is this: when I am driving and the app is running, and after a minute it goes into sleep mode...I should be able to simply tap the screen and the app wakes up without me having to draw my screen lock pattern to unlock the phone. If you guys can figure out a setting to overcome this, or maybe I am just missing the setting, please let us know!

User reviews

richard murray December 5, 2016

Nice size buttons Does everything I want and makes the buttons a usable size for my eyesight when set up as sat/nav, music & radio player and phone through the aux in my van.

This is by far the very best app of its kind that I have found and used. I had been through at least a half dozen other ones that were not acceptable. MY ONLY COMPLAINT IS THIS: when the app is on, there should be a setting that allows for the app to override the screen lock pattern that I have on the phone. What I mean is this: when I am driving and the app is running, and after a minute it goes into sleep mode...I should be able to simply tap the screen and the app wakes up without me having to draw my screen lock pattern to unlock the phone. If you guys can figure out a setting to overcome this, or maybe I am just missing the setting, please let us know!

So far so good I bought this a long time ago when I had my Toshiba excite10 and it worked well when monitoring the bus driver haha. Tablet quit working so now I'm on a ZTE Wellington. Works good here too. I even left the listener off to see what would happen and it still works with my music player. The only feature I would like to see added.... to have a custom picture (1 for landscape and one for portrait) as opposed to just the wallpaper. This way we can have a new image. It's kinda hard to explain.

Not as stable as it needs to be Bluetooth automatic start stop is very hit or miss and slow to work. Setting it has home screen, closing the app and hitting home results in the app opening again. This behavior lasts for several seconds. Other apps I use with similar functionality have no issue. Other than that I really enjoy this. Layout and functions are great.

Screwed up wireless charging As soon as I install this app my wireless charging stops working and still doesn't work after removal. Reset phone and it will work until I tried installing this app again.

Misleading Description Downloaded and the app worked as it described on it's page. Needed an accurate speedometer and it delivered. The reason I'm giving it 4 stars and not 5 is because it doesn't mention in it's description that it is a trial app and you need to do more once your trial has run out. I know because I checked right before I submitted this rating. No mention of a trial period once you decide to "Read More" on Google Play Store.

Hi, you can tap and hold a shortcut and update the icon to one from a high resolution icon pack.

Mark Biondo September 23, 2016

Good App, but missing some things 1) Currently, SMS messages are not displayed or no notification is seen within the app. How do I enable this? And is it possible to get the app to read out the messages like other car apps? 2) When I answer the phone, I have to accept the call and then activate speaker mode. Other car apps activate speaker mode as soon as the call is answered. Is this possible with Car Home Ultra?

This app works wonderfully on my new Turbo 2, my old Samsung wasn't up to snuffbut it was way obsolete anyway. This has lots more features and better automation than the iBolt Dock'n Drive apps. I recommend to use in conjuction with MotoSpeak which will answer your phone calls and text and allow you to use voice commands to answer both or not. I rarely ever have to touch my phone anymore, but this app makes your home button bring you back to Car Home while driving while giving you an extra button that will take you back to your home screen if you absolutely need to. Many pages of buttons make it an easy competitor to other apps.

Exit Great app. But having trouble exiting. I have it set to be the home app when driving. But when I exit, every time I press the home button, the app pops back up. Seems to happen when I'm done navigating.

Been my Car Home goto app for years Just one annoyance.. No way to set labels in themes back to default colours after using the colour overlays in Night Mode.. only way is to reset preferences, which of course I don't want to do... Please fix..

I love this app Driving cross country with everything at my fingertips, recently with higher temperatures noticed that the high will mix with the current temperature only noticed with 100° as of right now though

Won't update if doesn't read texts I'm afraid to update after seeing reviews how new versions stopped reading texts. Saw one recent review where developer just replied they'd keep it in mind. Sounded like a blow off.

We plan to provide a feature to read texts. However, it takes some time since the app supports many different languages. Thanks for your patience.

tony honer October 13, 2016

I've used this app for years & love it, but on nougat when it is landscape and activates car mode it makes the home & back buttons huge. This effectively makes the screen much smaller. This seems to be Nougat related. Which is why I gave it a 3 star rating instead of something better.

Music Widget A good app overall, but it not picking up the song Metadata regardless of which app that song is streamed from is 'highly frustrating'. On the music landing page, why don't you let the user add their own music widget in the space that you use to display artist and song information. It's always a hit and miss with your native app controls!!!!

Hi, if you use the app and like it I don't know why you have rated it at 1 star. I can't dictate what options Spotify has for playlists.

Armands Vitols November 10, 2016

Very good app for a car multimedia and nav. I'm using a Lenovo 3 Tab Essentials specially purchased for a car multimedia system . At a moment only few suggestions I could say in my opinion that could be useful. First (if it is possible of course) is to add a setting choice not just start app when it connects to specific bluetooth device but to force tablet/phone to wake up if it is in sleep mode. So it won't be necessary to push the power button. That would be very usefull, specially for people who want to build screen in dash or some box and button wont be easy accessible. And second tough is about a media controls. They are fine. Only think in my opinion is possibility to add (if wanted) rewind buttons (could be buttons, some swipe method or time bar) to main media control screen not just on media control shortcuts. That shortcut thing isn't that bad, but when you drive, there are too many actions that distract you from driving.

5 STARS The VERY BEST of the BEST! I bought the paid app...every app paid for should be as "PERFECT" as this one, it's flawless and I highly recommend using this when driving. This APP without a doubt saves lives from distracted driving (my hat's off to the developer/s)

Disappointed Very disappointed, Navigation has to be ready centered all the time, no phone app, you have to add the phone from your phone which is difficult to use when driving. HTC car app was the best I have used.

A couple updates ago it stopped allowing other apps to draw over the screen, most notably the phone app. I can get ringing but can't answer on the screen because it wouldn't let the drop down draw to answer the phone. I wouldn't be able to answer if my car radio didn't have an answer button. It won't allow any apps to draw over, you can change apps, but no draw over. Facebook messenger heads, phone, nothing will draw. Moto Z Force DROID, on Android 7.0 EDIT: In response to your response, it's not a dialer app issue. I only have the issue when Car Home Ultra is active and in car mode. It won't allow ANY app to draw over the screen. The phone ringing is a drop down draw over effect, much like Facebook Chat Heads (hence the mention of them). It only started doing it right after a Car Home Ultra update, and no other car dock applications (including Android Auto, which also enables car mode) displays this kind of behavior.

Hi, it was an update to the Android dialer, not this app. If you have any app full screen, the dialer only shows as a notification.

Leigh Sheppard September 6, 2016

Great idea and great potential! But unfortunately caused too many problems with the phone. Noticeable slow down, malfunctioning recent button (loses history) and occasionally leaves phone in an always on state even when the app is closed. Occasional strange Bluetooth behavior. Phone gets noticeably warmer also. I have uninstalled for now but will revisit again once the developers have had a chance to resolve these issues. This is an app that I really want to see working smoothly. UPDATE: SEP 2016 I have now been using Car Home Ultra for over month and have added a star. This has quickly become my most used app. I run my business from within my vehicle and this app makes it easy to accomplish that. I have mine configured so that it starts and stops automatically as soon as it detects that I am in the car (my bluetooth radio in the car triggers it), The issues that I mentioned above seem to have been resolved. That may have come from updates to the software or from updates to my phone, it is hard to tell which, but either way, Car Home Ultra has become an essential part of my business. Still gets the phone hot, so not quite 5-stars yet.

Great dock app Like it a lot. Laid out like my previous Motorola atrix built in car dock feature. Like the music player of choice song and artist info displayed, but when I reboot phone have to re click on media permission though it's still "on" to display artist and song info again. Every single time I reboot phone I have to re click media permission.

Good car hub Most functions are working nicely, however the premium "navigate" doesn't. It gets you into the Google map navigation screen but when you press the blue button to start navigating nothing happens. Possibly a bug?

Brilliant app and unbelievably customisable, once you know where everything is and what settings to change. I now have the phone firing up the app when I dock it in the car, it plays music from my Spotify playlists with track info, I can make calls easily with voice search and with one tap Google maps auto-loads to navigate to my home or work. Absolutely love it!

Simple and functional. No useless additions. When do we know an app is good? When we use it all the time without thinking much about it. This is one of those apps. I purchased it years ago. It keeps it simple, no fancy updates "just because". Keep it like this.

Nice principle, poor implementation. Automation and quick launch are very desired but missing in smartphones, so the principle is just, but much more options and customization are required, as well debugging to prevent false activations.

Gave 2 stars, worth 5...until you buy a new phone. After spending days getting everything set up just how I like it, I buy a new phone. That's a poor time to discover there's no way to backup or sync settings. So I have to MANUALLY set everything again on the new phone, when it ought to take seconds by exporting config on old phone, and moving the config file to a new phone (or better yet, cloud sync).